The present invention relates generally to washing bottles and more particularly to a new and improved bottle washing apparatus for washing the interior of small mouth bottles such as baby bottles and test tubes.
Cleaning the interior of small mouth bottles such as baby bottles and test tubes have presented problems for many years that to date have not been effectively solved for home and small laboratories that do not have access to commercial equipment. While commercial bottling plants have automatic machines that insert spray heads, rotating brushes and super heated water and detergent under pressure into bottles, as described, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 1,940,615 to Webster, this procedure cannot be duplicated in a home kitchen for baby bottles or in a small laboratory for test tubes. Instead, a number of methods of washing bottles have been used. The most common method is the utilization of a bottle brush. While a bottle brush when combined with soap and hot water will clean the interior of a bottle with dried residue or the like adhering to the interior surfaces, it requires considerable effort and a brush always presents the possibility of introducing bacteria and germs into a bottle and a separate and through rinsing operation has to be manually performed after the brushing. There have also been several patents in the prior art that address the problem of bottle cleaning. U.S. Pat. Nos. 466,680 to Harris and Goodsell, 1,893,498 to Herzog, and 1,577,236 to Huss, all disclose rigid or flexible shafts that are inserted into a bottle and water pressure is discharged through the shaft to wash the interior of the bottle.
While the aforestated devices provide washing action, when the solids in the liquid previously held by the bottle dry in the bottle and become encrusted on the interior surface the bottle, the washing action afforded by these devices is generally ineffective or the time required to loosen and remove such material is excessive.